The 2012 Maple Season...AMAZING!

It was 77 degrees today with no below freezing nights in sight.  It looks like maple season is over for the year 2012.  And what a year it was!  First, because we started so early this year we had early syrup to sell.  Often this gets a good price because buyers don't know how much syrup will be out there so they pay a bit more to have to first good runs.  We were hoping for 45 per gallon for our early run. 

Well, turns out the buyers we frightened, and not in a bad way for us, that there wasn't going to be much syrup to be had this year.  We sold the first 150 gallons at 62 per!!!  Sorry to shout but that was a bit over $9000.00 just for the first sale.  I have to say I was shocked.  We had been hoping for enough to pay for half of a solar panel plus pay the help (my nephews' college fund) out of our whole season and here in the first run, we had already reached our goal.

The happy surprises weren't finished though.  Our next run took in 71 per.  I never knew maple could go that high!  Seems like many of the producers didn't even bother to tap this year because they thought it would be a bad year.  Because the price of maple syrup is totally based on supply and demand (no government intervention here) when less people make it, prices go higher.  This year prices sky rocketed.  This is not the year to expect cheap maple syrup on the store shelves.

Our last run was a bit more normal but still high at 56 per. All in all we sold enough to afford the two solar panels we wanted on the sugar shack and we all decided to chip in for the wind turbine to finish with the generators.  In a month or so we will have all the generators (wind/solar) up for the shack.  We thought it would take us three years to afford the whole system, now we're thinking it will be finished by fall.  We still have to buy the batteries, wiring, inverter...etc but to say the least a three year project being cut to less than one year is amazing to me.

After the power is all set up we can use the sugar shack as a small guest house where friends can come stay when we're not boiling sap.  And it's got a great view, sitting right over a woodland pond with nothing else human made for over a mile.  While I was boiling I watched otters play and saw my first bear of the season. It should be a nice place to just get away from it all. 

The view from the deck of the sugar shack overlooking the pond

Anyway, I know not everyone had a good maple season and I'm sorry for that, but we had an amazing one.  I have tons of syrup on the basement shelves, we made good money in sales, and once again we got to be part of the turning of the wheel of the year, with maple syrup being the sweet good-bye to winter and an even sweeter hello to spring. 

Now it's time to get down to business with the gardens.  lol